Among the elements of the press most active in the "dry-wet" prohibition debate in the 1920s and early 1930s, was "Literary Digest," a weekly current affairs review. In addition to its regular impartial coverage of the week's actions relevant to prohibition, the "Digest" contributed three national straw polls on the…

Negative journalistic opinion on bilingual education has been widespread enough to have formed the context of public opinion within which national policy on bilingual education has been set. It can be surmised that what is propelling the journalistic assault on bilingual education is the particular orientation English monolinguals have adopted…

A study was conducted in the Washington, D.C., area to test mass media effects in a community controversy. Five possible theories were hypothesized to explain the effects media have on a community: indirect and direct effects, null effects, agenda setting, reverse effects, and reverse agenda setting. During the 16-month test period of the British…

This article reports on an analysis of the coverage of the National Front (NF) and other overt forms of white racism in all British daily national and two local papers between 1976 and 1978. The relationship of this coverage to other race-related topics and to the overall racial framework of news items is shown. News topics were coded and analyzed…

In 1976, Jamaican government officals claimed that their island had received an especially negative press in the United States during 1975 and 1976 with serious consequences for the economy and tourist trade. This accusation was not made about Canadian coverage, with one major exception, and Canadian tourism to Jamaica increased during those years…

A national sample of journalists, consisting of 700 television news photographers, newspaper photographers, television news directors, newspaper editors, and journalism educators, was asked to evaluate the ethical conduct in eight situations involving alleged invasion of privacy by photography. The respondents found journalistic conduct to be…

Today there is a growing realization among journalists that providing information should be a real service in the public interest, which is free from the domination of private interests, and that there should be structures that guarantee the independence of journalists and the promotion of responsible and responsive journalism. In France, the…

The interplay that exists between the mass media and political activity provides the topic for this report of an informal dialogue between William R. Carmack, from the University of Oklahoma, and Joseph S. Foote, press secretary to Carl Albert, Speaker of the House of Representatives. The first section of the report relates Carmack's opening…

To investigate changes attendant upon the 1971 transfer of ownership of "The Windsor (Ontario) Star" from an independent owner to Southam Press Limited, owner of several Canadian newspapers, a content analysis was conducted of newspapers from the four-year period of independent ownership and the four-year period of Southam Press…

The agenda-setting concept in mass communication asserts that the news media determine what people will include or exclude in their cognition of public events. Findings in uses and gratification research provide the foundation for this concept: an initial focus on people's needs, particularly the need for information. The agenda-setting concept…

Behavioral research suggests that communication between two individuals is affected by such factors as their orientation toward a topic, the importance of the topic, and interpersonal attraction. Seven hypotheses were formulated to determine if these factors--originally discovered in a discussion setting--were operative in an information-seeking…

This document focuses on freedom of information during 1975. The first section focuses on possible threats to First Amendment freedoms during 1976. The second section focuses on the problems and threats to journalists of S.1, the Senate legislation introduced at the start of the new Congress which aims to revise American criminal law. The third…

This thematic analysis of Edward L. Godkin's editorials appearing in the "Nation" seeks to reveal the major themes on which he wrote and then, by quantitative analysis, to provide some order to the themes and to study the interaction of the themes. Five hundred and twelve editorials, written over a period of 35 years and representing…

Photographs appearing in October 1-5, 1973, final editions of 16 major daily newspapers published in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. were analyzed for total number of pictures published, content category (breaking news, feature, or sports), placement (front page or inside), source (staff, Associated…

Six opinion magazines ("Christian Century,""Commonweal,""Christianity Today,""Nation,""National Review," and "New Republic") were analyzed for their treatment of legally recognized conscientious objectors during the Vietnam War era, 1964-72. The purpose of the study was to find how these…